A Wonderous Movie Review
Hello everyone! What’s up? I hope y’all had a great week, and here I am in time with my blogging commitment! Are you proud of me?
This week, Sister went to a birthday party and watched Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. She thought I’d like it, so the next day, I watched it with her and B. I liked it a lot, so I decided to do a review.
Attention! If you have not watched this movie, please close this blog, watch it ASAP, and then come back! SPOILERS HERE! Also, GIF overload!
Let us fall down the rabbit hole of this blog and leave behind all pretense of order…
I have read Lewis Carrol’s Alice in Wonderland, and while it is a classic and enjoyable, I always thought it a little boring. I also watched the Disney animated movie. But with a intriguing, mysterious plot, new characters, and a fresh take on an age-old story, I enjoyed this movie immensely.
Top five favorite characters:
Alice Kingsleigh
Alice Kingsleigh is a very dynamic character. As I always say, you can tell a character’s journey from their clothing, and as she transitions from party dresses to makeshift outfits, to armor, and more, there is no shortage of journey. She has been dreaming of Underland, or Wonderland, since she was very little, so when she falls down the rabbit hole, she believes it is all a dream. She deals with many different characters along the way, from the eccentric to the downright evil.
Ilosovic Stayne (Knave of Hearts)
Ilosovic Stayne is the Red Queen’s personal assassin and her love interest. He has no interest in the Queen, but pretends he does so he can stay alive. He is a pretty static character, but interesting nonetheless. I think he has such potential for great development/backstory, and I hope he’s in the second movie!
Tarrant Hightopp (Mad Hatter)
What’s not to like about the Mad Hatter? He’s eccentric, kind, and smart all at once. He seems to flip between several personalities: the raging madman, the silly hatter, and the compassionate man that he is underneath everything. He encourages Alice and sacrifices himself for her. Also, he has an accent. End of story.
Mallymkun
I think Mally is just so adorable! All, throughout the movie, I kept comparing her to Reepicheep from the Chronicles of Narnia movies.
This comparison was unfair, because (a. Reepicheep is bigger than Mally, (b. can swordfight much better, and (c. Reepicheep has way better quotes.
“Unhand the tail. Aslan the Great gave me this tail and no one, repeat, no one, touches the tail. Period, exclamation mark!”
See? No comparison. But I still liked her a lot.
Mirana Marmoreal (The White Queen)
I love Princess Diaries, and as soon as I watched this movie, I let out a most undignified squeal of “Princess Mia!” The White Queen is the Red Queen’s sister, but is different from her in almost every way. She is kind, compassionate, and totally worthy of her queenship, although she still has that distinguishing quirkiness that made me love both her and Princess Mia.
Honorable Mention for Best Villain: Iracebeth of Crims (The Red Queen)
The Red Queen is HILARIOUS! Yet even she has a dark side. Her affinity for decapitation is both amusing and disturbing. But who doesn’t love her big head?
There are some moments to this film that aren’t to be taken so lightly. There is a lot of violence, although mostly bloodless. Alice gets scratched by a Bandersnatch, and the wound putrefies, and Mally plucks out the creature’s eye. Most of the rest of the violence consists of stuff like toppling over card soldiers, but there is a scene where we see the Jabberwocky kill many people at a party. And we see several heads bobbing in a moat, even though they’re not portrayed in too great detail. Alice slays a creature by cutting off its head, and drinks its blood. She is also given a potion made of buttered fingers, coins from a dead man’s pocket, the White Queen’s spit, and more.
There is also some sexual content. Iracebeth is infatuated with Stayne, who kisses her hand twice. Later, he pulls Alice, masquerading as ‘Um’ and about 10 feet tall, aside, telling her that he ‘likes largeness.’ Alice pushes him away, and Stayne tells the Queen she tried to seduce him. Alice’s clothes do not change size with her, and she is forced to make creative wardrobe decisions. She grows out of her clothes entirely in one scene, but we don’t see anything more than her head, shoulders, and a little of her upper chest.
Even though this movie has its darker moments, I thought it was very enjoyable. Tim Burton did an excellent job with his reimagining of this classic story. I hope that his sequel is just as good, or better!
Updates:
February Sewing Challenge: I got my stuff and have started on one ‘sampler,’ but took a little break because I couldn’t focus. But now I’m back on top of it!
Minimalist Tidy: Grimaces not as well as I would like it to be, although it has motivated me to clean and display the seashells I collected last year, and I have organized my ‘junk drawer.’
Reading Bingo/February TBR:
- Completed The Silmarillion by Tolkien, as a book with a cover that I love.
- Completed The Long Patrol by Brian Jacques, as a book recommended by a family member or friend.
- Finished ‘The Religious Life of the Negro,’ got an A+ on my precis!
- Faith is Not a Feeling by Ney Bailey.
- False Awakening by Arianna Fox.
- Climbing the Stairs by Padma Venkatraman.
- Finished Eventwon by Corey Ann Haydu for a book in a genre I normally avoid, which was realistic fiction. Turns out the book was actually more low fantasy, which I don’t tend to read anyway
- Power Psycho-Cybernetics for Youth by Maxwell Maltz, M.D.
- Just for fun, I read Beginnings and Blessings by Kim Vogel Sawyer, A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett, and I Survived the Battle of D-Day by Lauren Tarshis
Alright everyone! Thanks for reading! I really hope you enjoyed it! Be blessed!
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Noodles
February 20, 2020
I’ve never seen the movie, or read the books, or even seen the animated movie. But it sounds pretty interesting! I’d like to see it now.
High Grace Farm Team
February 23, 2020
Hey Noodles! I liked it a lot, and I’m glad my review made you want to watch it!!